A Manchester-based smart energy start-up has been awarded £180,000 to develop innovative infrastructure systems for low carbon buildings.

Alongside the University of Manchester, Qbots has been selected to lead the £370,000 Q-PLUS project, co-funded by Innovate UK.

The project aims to decarbonise buildings by improving their energy management systems, implementing energy storage technologies and installing clean energy generation.

Manchester’s Climate Change Agency estimated that in 2016, 46% of the city’s carbon emissions were from commercial buildings.

The Carbon trust predicts around £2.4 billion of system cost savings per year could be achieved by 2030 with the addition of energy storage to the grid.

It says if half of these savings were passed onto customers it could reduce average household electricity bills by up to £50 a year.

Qbots Co-Founder and Marketing Director Vijay Natarajan said: “The funding will enable us to make use of University of Manchester’s world-class battery storage research facilities and will help create new jobs in the region within automation and data analytics.”